I had a “two-pronged” introduction to Fanfarlo. Firstly there was a ‘word of mouth’ recommendation from a person whose musical taste I really admire, backed up by an email from the amazing Jónsi Birgisson of Sigur Rós to members of their mailing list. If that wasn’t enough, I subsequently discovered that my original musical hero (David Bowie) is also a massive fan - and indeed wrote an article praising them in the Guardian back in 2007. The artwork for their debut album ‘Reservoir’ (produced by Peter Katis – noted for his work with The National and Interpol - was created by Lilja Birgisdottir (the sister of Sigur Rós singer Jónsi Birgisson). Fanfarlo also share the same management as Sigur Rós.
Enough ‘name-dropping’ I suppose. Fanfarlo use trumpet, violin, mandolins, glockenspiel (“Wey”!), saxophone, clarinet, melodeon, plus of course acoustic and electric guitar, bass and drums. Several band members, most notably Cathy Lucas are amazing multi-instrumentalists. The band was formed in 2006 by Swedish (but London based) musician Simon Balthazar, and their name apparently comes from a work by the influential 19th century French critic Charles Baudelaire.
It’s not often that your first (and second) gigs by a UK based band are actually in New York, but that’s how it worked out for me (having missed their last UK tour). As you’ll guess from the quality, this photo - taken at their gig at the legendary Bowery Ballroom in New York on September 21st - was not taken by me!
Closer to home, I’ll be seeing them in London and Leeds next week.
I think they're amazing.
http://www.fanfarlo.com/http://blogs.myspace.com/fanfarlo
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I'll have to listen to some more when I have time.